Interview Tips

In the pantheon of dumb things to say in a job interview, we all know the classics: bringing up salary right away, speaking poorly of your former employer, and the inexcusable “Excuse me while I take this call.” Landing a job is about more than just your experience and your achievements. A big factor in how well you interview is your nonverbal communication. That includes your posture, your body language and, perhaps most important, your eye contact. Appropriate eye contact speaks to confidence and self-esteem — important assets in any good employee Do’s

The Best Ways to Keep Eye Contact During an Interview:

While eye contact is important, don’t go to the other extreme and stare-down your interviewers. Eye contact naturally comes and goes with the ebb and flow of conversation.

Handshake

Begin your eye contact early. It’s particularly important to make distinct eye contact while you shake hands with your interviewer. Smile warmly and catch his eye. Try to make a true connection by projecting confidence.

Listening

Maintain eye contact as you listen to the questions your interviewer asks. If you look away, it may appear as though you are inattentive or uninterested. This is a very quick way to turn your interviewer against you. Match your attentive eye contact with an appropriate facial expression. Convey interested attention with an open, positive expression.

Don’t Stare

Although the standard advice is to maintain good eye contact throughout the interview, don’t take this to mean that you should stare fixedly at the interviewer. Maintain eye contact in a natural and friendly manner, which means that there are brief breaks and reconnections. For instance, it would seem natural to look away briefly if you have to pause to think about your answer. Then reconnect strongly as you begin to speak.

Lighthouse

You may be interviewed by more than one person, and you cannot maintain eye contact with just one individual throughout the interview. In this situation, you have two options. Maintain eye contact with the person who just asked you a question as you deliver the answer. If the point seems more general, you can use the “lighthouse” technique — spreading your attention and eye contact slowly from one end of the interviewing board to the other, looking at each person in turn through your answer.

Emphasize Important Points

At several times throughout the interview, there will be key points you want to drive home — about your experience, your selling points or your particular achievements. At these key points that you really want to have your interviewers remember later, make particularly intense eye contact. Think of appearing sincere and passionate at these times.

Research a Company Before the Interview:

These days, even getting past a job interview phone screening is tough. But once you’ve got your foot in the door for that first face-to-face interview, it’s critical to have significant knowledge about a company so you can make a good impression on a potential employer.

Tune your body posture

During your job interview try to adopt a posture that shows interest but still comes across as being relaxed. You can do this by sitting up straight in your chair at the beginning of the interview, with your back against the back of the chair. If you slouch or hang sideways in your chair, it might give the impression that you are not that interested in the job. However, sitting on the edge of your chair can come across as being a little tense and might give the impression that you feel uncomfortable. You can change your body posture a little during the interview. For example, when someone says something it is good to turn a little with your shoulders towards this person and to lean forward a little. This shows an interest in what the other person is saying. You can emphasise this by tilting your head a little. It is also important to pay attention to the posture of your interview partners. In some cases you can achieve mutual tuning by adopting the same posture as the other person.

Smile occasionally

Smile. Actually, this job interview tip is not as simple as it might seem. On one hand, if you look too intensely serious throughout the interview, you’ll probably fail to make a connection with the interviewer, which can be a major disadvantage in the selection process. Also, if you don’t smile much during the job interview, you could come across to the interviewer as being unfriendly, moody, or even intimidating. Those are all negative vibes which could result in your being eliminated from the running. Smiling occasionally during a job interview–especially at the beginning and end–is a crucial aspect of making a positive impression. However, you certainly don’t want to have a plastered smile on your face throughout most or all of the job interview. That could be perceived as everything from fake to creepy! When it comes to smiling during the interview, the number one guiding principle is to be as sincere and genuine as “Just be yourself” is usually good advice… unless you’re usually sarcastic, irritable, or introverted!

Be confident but not over confident

Confidence is belief in yourself that you can do anything with hardworking. Over confidence is believed in yourself that you can do anything easily. There is the “ONLY” world which makes difference between confidence and over confidence. I can do it, it is the confidence. Only I can do it, it is the over confidence. Confidence is a great thing. It allows us to get past our doubts and take action, but slightly too much of it is not good in real sense. The first, and often most apparent, consequence of overconfidence in the workplace is a negative effect on production. When an employee exhibits overconfidence, she believes her work is beyond reproach. The line between overconfidence and arrogance is thin. So it is better to be confident than overconfident cause confidence boosts productivity while overconfidence decreases it.

Be Presentable and Behavioral aspects

Behavior, character and personality are distinct levels in the evolution of the human being. When people display nice behavior, we say they are presentable. At the next level, when they have character, they can accomplish something. At a further level, being endowed with ‘personality’, they can create something original. First of all, believe in yourself. Just keep it simple and find your own original self and the things will come out perfectly!! Feel happy about yourself. When you are happy from inside, it is starkly visible in your face. Many of us object to being judged for employment based on how we look. We prefer to be hired because of our skills and abilities, not because of our dress and grooming. BUT like it or not, appearance and how you carry yourself is also important. Most of us have heard the expression, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Remember this when preparing to meet with a prospective employer. The picture you create will greatly influence your chances of being hired. Most employers form a first impression during the first seven seconds of a meeting.

Show enough Interest or enthusiasm and clarify queries having for the offered role and organizations

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm “While building up your job approach with recruiters; always present yourself as a proactive skilled person. In other terms, when you meet many HR people at a single place in one day, it creates confusion of course, whom to contact first and to whom later. You need to assure and to make every recruiter feels like you are their best choice among all candidates appeared there. Always try to clarify you’re your queries having for the offered role and organizations.

Always be punctual

Arriving early to an interview allows you time to de-stress from the journey and collect your thoughts. It will give you time to go over the questions you have prepared, run through your presentation (if applicable), and review the answers to questions that are likely to be presented to you. It will also give you time to calm your nerves, have a drink of water and go to the bathroom if necessary. This will hopefully allow you to enter the interview as relaxed and comfortable. How you behave at an interview is a reflection of how you will potentially behave if you were to be offered the position. Being late for the interview may suggest to the interviewer that you would be regularly late if you were offered the job and employed by the organisation. Being late isn’t the only action this may apply to. Nose picking, putting your feet on the desk and drinking from a hip flask are also unlikely to be considered as acceptable future traits. In many organisations the interview starts as soon as you arrive in the building. How you interact with the receptionist or secretary may well be taken into account when considering you for the position – this gives the organisation an idea of your personality outside of the formal interview setting. If you arrive late or on time then you may be missing out on the unofficial part of the interview process. So arrive early and be nice to all staff you encounter, but definitely no flirting!

Choosing the right seat

After the initial introduction you will usually be directed to take a seat. If you are left to choose a place yourself, choose a place from where you can clearly see all the interview participants, and from where they can also see you. If someone is sitting half behind you, and you can’t really see him, he may not get such a good impression of you because of this.

What you’re supposed to do with your Hands during an Interview

You should refrain from “wringing your hands” or “using too many hand gestures” since this communicates that you are nervous or not confident in your environment. To prevent this from happening, holding a pencil or pen to keep your hand rested on an object.

Don’t

I just need a job

This is absolutely one of the worst things a candidate can tell a potential employer, even if it’s true! Employers are searching for new hires that genuinely want to work in that position with that company. They want employees who will thrive in the position and remain loyal to the company.

What’s in it for me?

This question, out loud, would obviously be a horrible thing to say in an interview.

I’m also interviewing with ________.

Letting the interviewer know that you are interviewing elsewhere immediately makes them less interested in you. Companies don’t want to compete for your enthusiasm. Even if you are interviewing elsewhere, make them feel that you have a laser beam focus on them, and no one else.” Mentioning other interviews won’t make you seem sought-after; it will make you seem unprofessional.

Nothing

There is no excuse for not having any questions for the interviewer. “Interviews are two-way streets. The company wants to know if you are match for them. You want to know if the company is a match for you. When that point comes in the interview, it’s your chance to find out” What do you like best about this company? Is there anything else you need to know about my application that we haven’t covered? Or something highlighting the company’s accomplishments.

The wrong name

Take the time to make certain you know the name of your interviewer. You don’t want to start off the interview process by asking the receptionist that you’re there to talk with “maybe Rahul? Rohit? By the time he or she tracks down the correct person, everyone will know you weren’t prepared. This small step seems trivial but it is absolutely vital.

Over explain why you left your last Job

One can guarantee you that this question will come up in your next job interview — and it is likely to come up more than once. Unless you’ve never worked a day in your life you’ll need to be able to talk about why you left your last job and/or why you want to leave your position. If you are a fresher the interviewer might ask why you left your internship because it was a summer internship and summer ended. The answer is obvious and easy. Other situations will require more explanation. For example, why did you leave that one position after only two months? Avoid laying this on too thick and seeming insincere. You should never lie in a job interview. However, you should highlight the positive reasons for considering a new position and avoid talking about any negative ones if you can. Whatever may be the reason don’t over react or over speak on the cause.